Revival of a Legend
by DarkDragonne
Summary: AU. Roku died in the Avatar state, breaking the cycle. Now it is up to four benders, one of each nation, to revive the Avatar and bring balance to the world.
1. Prologue Death of a Legend

_So I'm writing an Avatar fanfic?_

_I wanted to write an AU story, for a change, and my most recent fetish is Avatar, so this is what my brain came up with. Hope you like it._

_Remember, this is AU, so yes, the Avatar can be revived even after he died in the Avatar state. The logistics of it will be discovered in a later chapter. If you don't like it, don't read. If you do, R&R_

_chapter 1 will be up soon, meanwhile enjoy the short prologue_

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**Prologue- Death of a Legend**

The grey-haired man stood on the rim of the volcano, struggling to contain the lava below. A plume of flame erupted from the fiery crater, suffocating even the firebender in its unbearable heat.

The man jumped higher than any human should be able to, landing twenty feet away on a smaller spur of rock. With a wave of his hand, water from the sea surrounding the volcanic island dug deep channels in the ground, creating a controlled route for the molten rock. But it was not enough. The volcano spewed more lava, and the channels overflowed.

With a cry, the man turned back towards the volcano and let out a long breath of cool air, almost visible in the hot air around him. The wind hardened the lava, turning it to black stone. He continued to control flows of cool wind from his arms, legs, and mouth, until the first house near the sea caught fire.

With a soundless scream, the man's eyes glowed white, and he rose in the air, letting off jets of steam, rock, and water, until he was enveloped by a swirling tornado, cooling the lava, which kept flowing.

With a sweeping motion, the man shaped the erupting liquid into a fluent spike, hardening it into rock with air and water. He was fighting a volcano, and winning. But soon, the exhaustion was apparent on his body, and he slowly swayed and fell into the lava. The light in his eyes did not go out until he was swallowed by the volcano.

Above the island, a white-haired man hovered on a blue dragon, surveying the island, which had by then solidified into a twisted spire of black rock.

"And so, my old friend," Firelord Sozin said, looking down at the destruction, "the Avatar is gone forever."


	2. Discovery

****The first real chapter. It's still extremely similar to the original at this point, so if you really want to you can skip this chapter, or at least everything in it that's not Aang and Katara's dialogue on the ship, or Zuko at the very end. The thing is, if you DO read this through then you might be able to pick up hints about the AU setting, and also read Sokka's PoV, which was way funner than Katara's.

R&R

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**Chapter 1- Discovery**

Sokka bent over the edge of the boat, his spear posed to strike.

"it's not getting away from me this time. Watch and learn, Katara. This is how you catch a fish." It was coming close now, moving its small body through the water.

"Sokka! Look!" Sokka shook his head in irritration. Why did his sister have to be so annoying? Couldn't she see he was busy?

"Shhh." He warned her, "you're gonna scare it away. I can already smell it cooking..."

"But Sokka, I caught one! Hey!"

Sokka was so intent on catching it that he didn't notice the sphere of water until it crashed into his head.

"Why is it, that every time you play with, magical water, I get soaked?" He snapped. He almost had it! Couldn't she just sit quietly until he caught the fish? _Noooooo, _she just _had_ to go and do her magic thing!

"It's not magic, it's waterbending. And it's-"

"Blah blah blah an ancient art unique to our culture blah blah blah," he had heard the speech a million times before. "Look, I'm just saying, that if I had weird powers I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

Katara was about to snap back an angry retort when Sokka felt the boat lurch under him and gain speed, swept along in a strong current. Frantically, Sokka grabbed his spear and started paddling, trying to fight the current with what strength he had.

"Go left, go left!" His sister shouted, not helping at all. A sudden wave smashed into the boat, flinging the two siblings onto a small chunk of ice.

"You call that left?"

"You don't like my steering? Maybe you should have _waterbended _us out of the ice?"

"So it's _my_ fault?"

"I _knew _I should have left you home!" Sokka felt his temper rising. She could never take criticism. "Leave it to a girl to screw things up."

"You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained... I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" Sokka's eyes widened as the ice behind her cracked, raining small chips down. "Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work while you've been off playing soldier!" Another crack formed in the ice.

"Katara..."

She didn't listen to him, continuing with her rant. Staring at the ice, which cracked further and further as his sister's temper rose, Sokka could barely hear what she was saying.

"Katara, calm down!"

"I'm done helping you! From now you're on your own!" the iceberg shattered, and the block of ice that they were stranded on was washed away again.

"Thats it!" he threw his arms up in the air. "You've gone from weird to freakish."

"I did that?" _No. _Sokka thought, _another person with freakish magical powers showed up and broke the iceberg into tiny pieces._

"Yep." was what he actually said. "Congratulations."

His attention shifted suddenly to something he saw out of the corner of his eye. Something was rising out of the sea- a large sphere of ice, reflecting the sun. Inside it was the faint silhouette of a human figure.

"He's alive!" Katara shouted excitedly. How did she know that, Sokka wasn't sure. "We have to help!"

"Katara, come back here! We don't know what that thing is!"

His sister didn't listen. As usual. Instead, she hit the iceberg repeatedly with a machete- _his _machete, as if it could do anything. A sudden breaking noise sounded, a hole opened in the ice, and a faint whooshing sound came from it, as if a large amount of air was forcing itself through.

The noise stopped, and a human figure pulled itself out of the hole. It took a few steps in their direction, and then swayed and dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Suspiciously, Sokka approached the figure. It was a boy, a few years younger than he was, dressed in yellow and orange and completely bald. There was a tattoo on his head- a blue arrow stretching from his back to his forehead. Sokka had never seen anyone who looked like this boy before. He certainly didn't look like he was from the Water Tribes. Lifting an eyebrow, Sokka poked the boy, to see if he woke up.

"Stop it!" Katara shouted, and cradled Tattoo Boy's limp body in her arms. Suddenly, his eyelids fluttered open, revealing light grey eyes.

"I need to ask you something..." he said, looking at Katara with a dreamy expression.

"What?"

"Please, come closer..."

"What is it?"

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?" Tattoo Boy's tone was suddenly cheerful, as if being stuck in an iceberg was daily routine for him.

"Uh, sure, I guess." Was Katara's answer.

Tattoo Boy got up and surveyed his surroundings, as if he only now realized that he was in a _field of ice_. "What's going on here?"

"You tell us!" Sokka demanded. "How'd you get in the ice? and why aren't you frozen dead?"

"I'm not sure..." Tattoo Boy started, and then stopped when a sudden snoring sound came from the ice. "Appa! Are you alright? Wake up, buddy!" _Appa?_ Sokka wondered. _Is there ANOTHER person stuck in there?_

When Sokka saw the actual Appa, he immdiately realized it was NOT a person. More like a gigantic fluffy monster, with four legs, a huge snout, and an arrow on its head. Like the boy's.

"What _is_ that thing?" Sokka asked.

"This is Appa. My flying bison." _Yeah right._

"Right, and this is Katara, my flying sister." Sokka pointedly ignored the look the sister in question gave him.

Appa shook, and a rumbling sound seemed to be coming from him. Without any warning, he abruptly sneezed, and Sokka was caught in the snot.

"Don't worry. It'll wash out." Tattoo Boy said cheerfully, not helpful at all. "So do you guys live here?"

"Don't answer!" Sokka warned his sister. He didn't trust Tattoo Boy. For all they knew, he could be a Fire Nation spy.

"The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka." Katara sighed, and Sokka spluttered indignantly. He wasn't paranoid! "You never told us your name."

"I'm A...A...A..." He didn't get to finish the sentence, as he was shaken by a sneeze that rivaled Appa's, shooting ten feet in the air.

The two siblings stared at him, mouths open. Sokka's mind went completely blank as Katara found the words- "You're an airbender!"

"Sure am! Oh, and I'm Aang."

"Flying bisons, airbenders... I think I got midnight sun madness. I'm going home, to where things make sense." Why were the other two looking at him like that? Oh. Right. The miles of freezing water between him and home. But he was willing to _swim _all the way beck, if he had to.

"Well, if you're stuck, Appa and I could give you a lift." Aang offered, and Katara's eyes lit up.

"We'd love a ride! Thanks!"

"Oh no. I'm not getting on that fluffy snot monster." Sokka said after both his sister and the strange airbender sat down onto some sort of saddle on it's back.

"Oh, are you hoping _another_ kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home? You know, before you freeze to death?" Why was his sister so annoying?

Sokka hesitated, and then got on Appa's back. It was better than freezing to death, right? Besides, there was _no way_ this thing would actually _fly_...

By the time Katara pulled a reluctant Aang out of the tent, the entire village was assembled. Sokka sourly sharpened his boomerang, glaring at the duo. Why was Aang so special? Oh right, airbender, flying bison, blah blah blah. He snorted derisively and watched as his sister introduced the airbender to the others.

"Why are they all looking at me like that?" The tattooed boy asked, confused.

"Well, no one's seen an airbender in a hundred years." Gran-Gran replied. "We thought they were extinct until my granddaughter and grandson found you."

"A hundred years?" Aang asked faintly. The look on his face was a mixture of horror, sadness, and fear.

"Aang, this is my grandmother." Katara said quickly, trying to steer the subject away from dead airbenders.

"Call me Gran-Gran." The old woman smiled.

"Whats this?" Sokka stood up and grabbed Aang's staff. The question had been bothering him since he first saw it. "A weapon? You can't stab anything with this!"

"It's not for stabbing." Huh? Then what kind of weapon _was_ it? "It's for airbending." He pressed his hand against a point in the staff, and a wing-like structure that reminded Sokka of a sail unfolded, creating a small glider in his hands.

"Magic trick! Do it again!" Sokka heard the voice of one of the kids- his students- shout.

"Not magic, airbending!" Aang sounded suspiciously like Katara at the point. Was it a bender thing? "It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly."

"You know, last time I checked, humans can't fly." Sokka said skeptically. _And neither could bisons._

"Check again!" Aang took off, soaring around the village... and right into Sokka's watchtower. The tower's wall crumbled into snowy powder. And what was worse, Katara looked and spoke to Aang in such admiration, as if he should be _praised_ for it!

"Great." Sokka gave up his efforts to fix his broken masterpiece. "You're an airbender, Katara's a waterbender, now you can just waste time all day long!"

"You're a waterbender?" Aang's voice was as admiring as Katara's.

"Well, sort of. Not yet." Sokka snorted. She was enough of a waterbender to annoy the hell out of him.

"Have you seen Aang?" Katara asked Sokka. "Gran-Gran said he disappeared over an hour ago."

A sudden laugh alerted them, and Katara saw Aang playing with the younger kids, showing off his airbending moves and throwing snow at them.

"Katara, get him out of there! This lesson is for warriors only!" Sokka's 'warrior lessons' were something of a laughingstock in the Southern Water Tribe. Ever since their father, Chief Hakoda, had left for the war, Sokka took his words- "the defense of our village is up to you"- far too seriously. Every single boy in the tribe was forced to attend Sokka's lessons, which had little to no effect on them. All the grown men had sailed away, and all Sokka had to work with was an "army" of boys barely ten years old.

No one said anything about it to Sokka's face, of course. It was common knowledge that the 'lessons' were a way for him to cope with being left behind. However, some wondered whether it would be better if he stopped deluding himself, as his lessons interrupted the lifestyle of the children as well as his own.

Watching Sokka chase the children (and Aang), trying to restore order, was enough to make Katara laugh.

"Stop! Stop it!" Sokka shouted, frustrated. "What's wrong with you? We don't have _time _for fun and games with the war going on!"

The mention of the war was enough to wipe the smile from Katara's face and make Aang stop in his tracks, a confused expression on his face. "The war? So it's still..." he suddenly looked up at some point behind Katara. "PENGUIIIIIIN!" he screamed, and ran after it with superhuman speed, raising a cloud of snow.

"Whoa. What is that?" Aang asked, staring at the frozen Fire Nation ship. He had noticed it after an hour of penguin sledding, which Katara had found surprisingly enjoyable. The ship, however, brought her back to reality, and to the war.

"A Fire Navy ship." She replied. "A very bad memory for my people."

Wearing the same expression of curiosity he wore in the village, or when he was penguin sledding, Aang walked towards the ship.

"Aang, stop! We're not allowed to go near it! It could be booby-trapped!"

"If you want to be a bender, you have to let go of your fear." He said evenly. She hesitated, but followed him in.

Aang led her through the hull of the ship, between rooms which probably used to be occupied by the crew and others which apparently served for storage. He led her into a room with weapons and armor arranged in neat rows on the walls and in messier piles on the floor- an armory. Looking at the Fire Nation weapons, Katara worked up the courage to speak.

"This ship has haunted our tribe since Gran-Gran was a little girl. It was part of the Fire Nation's first attacks."

"Since... Since Gran-Gran was a little girl?" Aang's eyes widened.

"Yes."

"But that's... So long ago."

"Almost ninety years, I think."

"The Fire Nation's first attacks were almost ninety years ago?"

"On the South Pole, yes. But the Air Nomads were attacked earlier- oh."

Aang looked down at the metal floor, avoiding her gaze. "The Air Nomads... What happened?"

Something was wrong here. The Air Nomads were eradicated almost a hundred years ago. Aang couldn't have been in the iceberg for that long, could he?

"Aang?" Katara asked slowly. "How long exactly were you in the iceberg?"

"I don't know. A few days, maybe?"

"I don't think so. It seems more like a hundred years."

"A hundred years?" Aang looked at his hands as if he was expecting them to become dry and wrinkled. "That can't be right! I'm not that old!"

"Think about it. It makes sense! You don't know what happened in the war, almost a hundred years ago! You're still alive! You-" once again, she cut herself short. If he didn't know what had happened to the rest of the Air Nomads, was it really her place to tell him?

"A hundred years?" He stated slowly, still in shock.

"Don't worry." Katara said lamely, in a vain attempt to comfort the airbender. "Maybe there's a bright side to all of this?"

"I got to meet you!" He exclaimed, his face bright and cheerful again. But in the split-second before he spoke, his expression made Katara wonder if there was something he wasn't telling her.

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

As they walked through a narrow corridor, Aang stumbled, and the sound of grinding machinery sounded from somewhere below. The doorway they were about to go through snapped shut, and the rumbling got stronger.

"Hold on tight!" Aang called and airbended a stream of air which punched a hole in the hull of the ship. He grabbed her and jumped from deck to deck, covering ten feet with every jump. Behind them, a rocket ascended from the ship and exploded in the air far above them.

Prince Zuko was standing on the deck of his ship staring at the frozen wasteland when the rocket launched. Alerted by the noise, he grabbed his telescope and focused on the stranded ship that the missile had come from.

The missile wasn't the only thing that came out of the ship- through the lens, Zuko could see two figures jumping down from the ship. Although the distance was too great for him to make out the man's features clearly, his clothing and style of movement were unmistakable.

"Call Uncle," he commanded the sailor standing next to him, "tell him my search is complete." In an undertone that even the sailor couldn't hear, the prince added, "An airbender. I only hope he's the last one..."


End file.
